Emacs: notmuch-indicator version 0.1.0

2022-09-21

This is a simple package that renders an indicator with an email count of the notmuch index on the Emacs mode line. The underlying mechanism is that of notmuch-count(1), which is used to find the number of items that match the given search terms. In practice, the user can define one or more searches and display their counters. These form a string which realistically is like: @50 😱1000 💕0 for unread messages, bills, and love letters, respectively.

• Package name (GNU ELPA): notmuch-indicator
• Git repo on SourceHut: https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/notmuch-indicator
  • Mirrors:
    • GitHub: https://github.com/protesilaos/notmuch-indicator
    • GitLab: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/notmuch-indicator
• Mailing list: https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/notmuch-indicator
• Backronym: notmuch-… Increasingly in Need of Displaying Inconsequential Counters Alongside Trivia that Obscure Reality.

The GNU ELPA package will be built by the server in a few hours from now. Local time is 2022-09-21 07:43 +0300 and I expect it to be done by noon.

Below are the release notes, which are just the contents of the README, given that this is the first stable version.

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This is a simple package that renders an indicator with an email count of the notmuch index on the Emacs mode line. The underlying mechanism is that of notmuch-count(1), which is used to find the number of items that match the given search terms.

The indicator is enabled when notmuch-indicator-mode is on.

The user option notmuch-indicator-args provides the means to define search terms and associate them with a given label. The label is purely cosmetic, though it helps characterise the resulting counter.

The value of notmuch-indicator-args is a list of plists (property lists). Each plist consists of one mandarory property and two optional ones:

1. The :terms, which is required, is a string that holds the command-line arguments passed to notmuch-count(1) (read the Notmuch documentation for the technicalities).

2. The :label, which is optional, is an arbitrary string that is prepended to the return value of the above. If nil or omitted, no label is displayed.

3. The face, which is optional, is the symbol of a face that is applied to the :label. It should not be quoted, so like :face bold. Good candidates are bold, italic, success, warning, error, though anything will do. If nil or omitted, no face is used.

Multiple plist lists represent separate notmuch-count(1) queries. These are run sequentially. Their return values are joined into a single string.

For instance, a value like the following defines three searches:

(setq notmuch-indicator-args
      '((:terms "tag:unread and tag:inbox" :label "@")
        (:terms "from:bank and tag:bills" :label "😱")
        (:terms "--output threads tag:loveletter" :label "💕")))

These form a string which realistically is like: @50 😱1000 💕0.

The user option notmuch-indicator-refresh-count determines how often the indicator will be refreshed. It accepts a numeric argument which represents seconds.

The user option notmuch-indicator-force-refresh-commands accepts as its value a list of symbols. Those are commands that will forcefully update the indicator after they are invoked.

The user option notmuch-indicator-hide-empty-counters hides zero counters from the indicator, when it is set to a non-nil value.